


Lights, Camera, Action

by motorcitydreams



Category: Professional Wrestling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-07
Updated: 2014-03-06
Packaged: 2018-01-14 21:12:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1278988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/motorcitydreams/pseuds/motorcitydreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex Shelley left TNA to have the opportunity to pursue his dreams; how will he react when TNA asks him to come back?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lights, Camera, Action

**Author's Note:**

> _A/N: This is the prequel to the series I keep talking about, The Rise & Fall of the Machine Guns. It's set pre-Machine Guns, stretching from 2004 to 2006, but will mainly take place during the Paparazzi Productions era. I'm going to try really hard to make everything as accurate as possible, but it's been so long that there's no way I can get everything 100%. I'll do my best. I hope you enjoy._

Truth be told, Alex really wasn’t expecting much when he got the call that Jeff wanted him to return to TNA. He didn’t have high hopes for the way he would be used and rightfully so—his last run had been, in his opinion, abysmal. It wasn’t so much the Baby Bear gimmick, though he had been less than displeased with it, but rather the lack of respect that he seemed to garner from the booker at the time, Dusty Rhodes. At first, Alex had thought that maybe Dusty’s lack of enthusiasm toward booking the X-division was due to the fact that he was strictly old-school, and just didn’t understand that particular style, but that wasn’t the case. As time went on, Alex saw that Dusty had no problem booking his peers in matches. It was Alex that Dusty seemed to have a personal problem with, and he had no idea why. Alex didn’t remember ever being purposely brusque with or disrespectful to Dusty. But it seemed like Dusty just didn’t think that Alex was a valuable worker.

Alex finally reached a point where he couldn’t stand going to work, and he knew that his work performance would eventually suffer, so he scheduled a meeting with Jeff. Alex had explained where he was at in terms of his mental state, told Jeff that he was unhappy, and stated that he thought it would probably better for everyone involved if he left the company and pursed work elsewhere. Jeff had been disappointed, as he had taken a special interest in all of the guys in the X-Division, but he’d understood, and told Alex that the door was always open for him to return. Alex appreciated the offer, but returning to TNA in the future was the last thing on his mind. He’d had about enough of mainstream American wrestling. Make no mistake about it, Alex was very thankful for the opportunity to work for a wrestling company with a television show, but he was just done with sports entertainment.

One aspect of his job that Alex had hated in particular was working with Goldy Locks. He disliked the Baby Bear gimmick that they’d given him as it was, but he could’ve swallowed his pride and played the part, had he not been forced to work with her. Goldy Locks was extremely difficult to work with, mainly because she had made it abundantly clear to everyone that she really didn’t know a thing about wrestling or cared to learn about it. She was there solely to launch her singing career—at least that’s what Alex remembered her yammering about at every opportunity—and as soon as she had the means to do so, Goldy Locks would be gone from TNA. Alex doubted she’d be there when he returned, if he ever decided to. But he had no definite plans at the moment.

Alex was looking forward to returning to the indy circuit, as strange as it probably sounded. Most of his peers, and even guys that came before him, looked at a return to the indies as a step backward, but Alex loved it. He loved the freedom that came with being an independent wrestler. He had no problem paying his dues when he started wrestling, and now that he had reached the top, so to speak, he had no problem giving back.

There had been no doubt in Alex’s mind that he would be able to find work upon his departure from TNA, and he had been correct. In fact, his phone blew up with voicemails and text messages from various promoters only days after he left, asking if he would be interested in working for them. Alex deleted the numbers and messages of the ones that he wasn’t particularly interested in working for, and kept the ones that he did want to work for. His first stop was his old stomping grounds, Ring of Honor. Alex was excited about returning to work with some of his peers, like Roddy and Austin. He also planned to hit up PWG, since Excalibur had expressed interest in Alex returning there.

As the months rolled on, Alex realized just how much he had missed actually wrestling. He’d realized that wrestling on TV just wasn’t meant for him, although he had enjoyed his work in TNA. Alex would definitely miss his friends, but he would not miss the Orlando fans by any stretch of the imagination. They were so jaded and rude, and many of them acted as though they didn’t want to be there anyway. Performing for them just wasn’t fun. The fans that came to the indie shows, however, were so appreciative of different styles of wrestling, and they devoured what they were given. Alex wasn’t the most fan-friendly wrestler, but he felt that he had a special relationship with the indie fans. For the most part, they were pretty smart people, and he valued their opinion a lot.

Working in Japan, even for just one tour, was also a dream of Alex’s, and had been ever since he discovered puroresu. Kaz Hayashi was one of his heroes, and Alex wasn’t delusional enough to think that he would ever actually meet the guy, let alone work with him, but he did hold out hope that he would be able to work for a Japanese company someday soon. He just had no idea that it would ever come true. When Alex had received the call asking him to come and work for Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max, he was overjoyed. 

He had absolutely no problem with moving to Japan if need be, but the promoter reassured Alex that he would be able to keep his American bookings. Everything would be tailored to Alex’s schedule. He was stoked to finally be able to live out his dream. Even if this was his only tour in Japan, Alex didn’t care. He just wanted to be able to look back on his career once he retired and say that he got to wrestle in Japan. He wanted to wrestle in Mexico, too, but Alex wasn’t about to count his chickens before they hatched. Baby steps.

Alex’s disastrous run with TNA wasn’t even an issue anymore. He simply was not going to waste his time wondering what could have been when he had a bright and exciting future ahead of him. He had left the company on good terms; he hadn’t burned any bridges, though he had been sorely tempted to march right into Dusty’s office and tell him to shove his contract up his fat ass. Even Alex was surprised by his lack of restraint, because when he had told Chris what had happened, Chris had said exactly the same thing. 

Most people would be terrified and nervous about being thrust into a foreign country so vastly different from their own, but not Alex. He adored everything about the Japanese culture, so much so that his love for the country bordered on obsession. He wanted to completely immerse himself in the culture, and if it was possible, Alex would probably have moved to Japan and stayed there. But it wasn’t in the cards, or the funds. Maybe once he retired, he would be able to. At the present moment, however, Alex had too many variables tying him to America. And he really wasn’t ready to move all the way across the world anyway, not yet. Hopefully he would be able to fulfill that dream in a couple of years, while he was still young. 

Alex had no words for how excited he was to wrestle in Japan. He was even more excited upon learning that Chris would also be doing a tour as well. Alex hoped that he would get to work with Chris, as he was not only somebody that Alex considered a close friend, but also an inspiration. Alex had always admired Chris greatly, and from the moment they’d met, they had just clicked on numerous levels. They shared the same sense of humor as well as an intense passion and love of wrestling, and respect for the business. Alex really wanted the chance to work with Chris. They had wrestled against each other on the indies, but they’d never had the chance to work together as a proper tag team. If they got the shot, Alex knew that they would blow everybody’s minds.

TNA wasn’t even worth missing. Alex told himself this every day, to the point where he finally believed that it was true.

And then he got the call from Jeff Jarrett asking Alex if he could meet with him as soon as possible.


End file.
